Transmission gears and other substantially heavily loaded mechanisms include, in some instances, a substrate formed from, e.g., steel or aluminum, where the substrate is coated with a CrNx coating material. The CrNx coating, which may include a mixture of CrN and Cr2N, often advantageously improves the wear and corrosion resistance of the substrate. In some instances, however, the CrNx coating insufficiently adheres to the substrate and/or the CrNx coating may have a substantially high residual stress, which may lead to delamination of the CrNx coating from the substrate.
One way of improving the adherence of the coating material on the steel substrate is to use substantially pure Cr as the coating material. It has been found, however, that substantially pure Cr may be deficient in hardness and may not improve the wear and corrosion resistance of the steel substrate.